My Apprenticeships & Music-Hall Sidelights

by Colette

Translated by Helen Beauclerk

Genres: France

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Colette was the pen name of the French novelist and actress Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. She is best known, at least in the English-speaking world, for her novella Gigi, which provided the plot for a famous Lerner & Loewe musical film and stage musical. She started her writing career penning the influential Claudine novels of books. The novel Chéri is often cited as her masterpiece.

Reviews

[Florence Penrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's always a surprise to me to realise how few readers have come across Colette's essays. Her novels, Gigi and the (dreadful) Claudine novels particularly, are what people remember her for, but her essays, covering what was an amazingly varied life - including 3 marriages and a lesbian relationship - are fascinating.
This book covers the period of the break-up from her 1st husband and her subsequent work as a mime in the music halls of Paris and the provinces. Each little essay is a gem. Of course, what helps is a good translation. If you find Colette dull, try finding a different one (my translation of this book was by Helen Beauclerk and is excellent).

[Dvora Treisman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't suppose I had much idea what (and who) Colette was talking about when I first read this. Now I'm rereading her biography and pausing as I go to reread some of the books discussed there. On its own this book might not be that interesting, but together with the biography I found it interesting. Altogether my self-designed course is helping me get a clearer idea of her life and her work. Which is a good thing for a Colette fan.

[Raechel]

Sorry, just can't get into this at all. She's very dull, isn't she?

[Carson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tres charmant. absolutely places you in early twentieth century bohemian Paris.

[Mattea Gernentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It had been roses, roses all the way. But what would I have done with everlasting roses?" (20).

I am delighted and moved, as always, after reading Colette. In this selection of autobiographical writing, Colette explores desire, loneliness, her longing for nature, the theater, and the weight of being "a woman of the hearth" under France's Napoleonic Code. She writes with unflinching candor, ingenious and amusing images, and a warm confidence that is utterly bewitching.

I need a time machine to go back to turn-of-the-century France immediately. Totally not jealous at all as Colette describes interacting with Fauré, Debussy, Natalie Clifford Barney, and more.

P.S. This rating is seulement for My Apprenticeships because I am reading through Music-Hall Sidelights in my enormous Collected Stories of Colette edition.

[Cindy Lou Poquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

"My Apprenticeships" was enlightening as to the treatment of women during the early 1900's. Colette's exquisite writing carried me through the parts I normally would not have enjoyed. The Music-Hall Sidelights" was skillfully written and brisk. It was a quite fascinating series of vignettes about the folks who entertain audiences night after night. How unglamorous the life can be, yet how much the crew wants to be a part of it, bad treatment and all.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account of Colette’s marriage to her first husband and then during her time as a music hall performer - also love reading a queer writer from the early 1900s.